Contents

While there are different tactics for different situations (explained below, in the tactics section), the general outline of how this team works is very similar to most other 55/SS teams:

The 55 monk attracts all aggro of the enemies. This includes the important step of taking melee attackers to spell casters and/or ranged attacker whenever possible to allow Spiteful Spirit to kill as many foes simultaneously as possible. Solid lining up of ranged attackers and then solid piling of melee attackers on them are the keys to making this team build effective and successful.

The SS necromancer's job is to carefully administer Spiteful Spirit on foes so that as many foes as possible drop at the same time. If the 55 monk does a solid job piling up foes, then Spiteful Spirit placed on two of them can take out the entire group in a matter of seconds.

The 55 monk's primary responsibility is to survive. He/she must be accustomed to playing the role of an invincible monk.

The SS necromancer is in charge of killing, and must utilize his skills in the way that takes out the most dangerous foes first.

In case of aggro breaks the 55 monk needs to cast protective and healing spells on the SS necromancer who then needs to gather the enemies together again.

It is safest to put on all of your enchantments before you move to get aggro, especially in the Chamber and the Labyrinth (the area where you start). You need 35 energy to cast Protective Spirit, Healing Breeze and Spell Breaker together.

Use Spell Breaker to deflect enchantment removal, or prevent initial spells while you approach. When you see a Dying Nightmare pop up in your mini radar, use Spell Breaker immediately to avoid Rend Enchantments. If your enchantments are removed, cast Protective Spirit as fast as you can to avoid death.

If the necromancer is attacked, cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze on him, so that he will survive when pulling the attackers to you.

Essence Bond can be replaced with Bonetti's Defense when encountering large mobs or before using Healing Breeze to help interruption. (Note that it will end upon successful casting.) Bonetti's Defense should not be used while tanking Smite Crawlers, because it interferes with Sympathetic Visage and Ancestor's Visage. You can put extra attribute points into Tactics, and auto-attack Bladed Aatxes and Grasping Darknesses with an axe or sword to build adrenaline.

The 55 can bring a wand to help kill Dying Nightmares. The wand should do max damage (11-22), and the 55 must meet the wand's attribute requirement. No special wand upgrades are needed. The wand can be customized to do 20% extra damage. Equip the wand and the -50hp Cesta as a secondary weapon set; use the enchanting weapon set to cast buffs before aggro, and switch to the wand set to kill Nightmares after aggroing.

Insidious Parasite is also useful, only use it to speed up the killing of one foe, and to kill escaping graspings/smites on your own (doing this with smites is pretty dangerous and needs practice. Don't make the monk come to you. You can kill it on your own, if you are in danger however (below 50% health) run to the monk to get breeze and PS.

If you use Blood Magic skills move points from Soul Reaping to Blood Magic and take a Blood Magic rune, preferably a superior one.

A high Soul Reaping is not really needed, it only gives you (near) full energy after the mob is killed. So you can remove ALL points in Soul Reaping (you can keep the minor rune) and use the attribute points to raise your Illusion Magic to 12. This will give you a nine-seconds-lasting Sympathetic Visage or Ancestor's Visage. It will decrease the time that the tank doesn't have SV/AV on him. Now, this advantage might not look so great, but it can prevent the Smite Crawlers to gain energy. So that they won't use Smite Hex on your precious Spiteful Spirit. (This can save a lot of time.)

Usage:

Patience and good timing are the most important aspects of success. Give the 55 monk room to operate and round up and gather aggro. Following closely will only result in breaking up aggro and making fights longer. Never move into the aggro range of enemies before they are concentrating on the monk. Most enemy types will also change their target to you if you go closer than the maximum spell casting range.

Once the enemies are piled up into one nice pile, proceed to echo and apply Spiteful Spirit and its copy on different foes. Follow it up with Reckless Haste if you have it (which affects an area so you do not need to apply it to more than one foe in the same cluster before the duration wears off). Generally, Warriors and Assassins make the best targets as they attack fast and invoke stances while attacking which only serves to increase the damage SS deals.

If you are attacked, pull the attackers to the monk, who should cast Protective Spirit and Healing Breeze on you, so that all enemies will be damaged by the SS. If you act quickly, the enemies will die to the initial SS spells and you won't need to recast it.

When fighting Smite Crawlers you need to be more careful and wait for the monk to finish the pull and let the Smites gather around him to prevent aggro change. Cast SV on the monk, wait 9 seconds to let SV lower the energy of the Smites, then cast in the following order: AV on the monk, Arcane Echo, Spiteful Spirit on target 1, Spiteful Spirit on target 2, SV on the monk again, and move away from aggro range if the mob has 4 or 5 smites (they'll come after you). If its a group of 4, cast Insidious Parasite (if you have it) then a cover hex like Reckless Haste or even SS. If it is a group of 5 smites, place two SS's (explained above) then run away until the smites lose aggro. When they are back at the monk, just restart the process.

Coldfire Nights are easy to kill if the monk is able to keep them together and you stay out of their aggro when not casting SS on them.

An enchanting weapon such as a Totem Axe or a staff with a +20% enchantment wrap can be equipped in a secondary weapon set. This will extend the Visage spells and make it easier to kill Smite Crawlers.